70 A Century of Science 



With a comfortable house and three acres of land, 

 his father kept a wagon shop and smithy. In 

 those days, while it was hard work to wring a sub- 

 sistence out of the soil or to prosper upon any of 

 the vocations which rural life permitted, there was 

 doubtless more independence of character and real 

 thriftiness than in our time, when cities and tariffs 

 have so sapped the strength of the farming coun- 

 try. In the family of Vincent Youmans, though 

 rigid economy was practised, books were reckoned 

 to a certain extent among the necessaries of life, 

 and the house was one in which neighbours were 

 fond of gathering to discuss questions of politics or 

 theology, social reform or improvements in agri- 

 culture. On all such questions Vincent Youmans 

 was apt to have ideas of his own ; he talked with 

 enthusiasm, and was also ready to listen ; and he 

 evidently supplied an intellectual stimulus to the 

 whole community. For a boy of bright and inquis- 

 itive mind, listening to such talk is no mean source 

 of education. It often goes hiuch further than 

 the reading of books. From an early age Edward 

 Youmans seems to have appropriated all such 

 means of instruction. He had that insatiable 

 thirst for knowledge which is one of God's best 

 gifts to man ; for he who is born with this appetite 

 must needs be grievously ill made in other respects 



